Monsters of the Deep

By Nick Redfern

A deep dive into the undersea netherworld of sea serpents, lake monsters, surviving dinosaurs, genetically altered mutants, and legendary aquatic creatures.

Water takes up 70 percent of Earth’s surface, with countless lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, seas and oceans covering much of the land, but what lurks beneath the water? For centuries, sightings have been made of huge, marauding monsters swimming the world’s oceans and lakes. They include Scotland’s legendary Loch Ness Monster; the United States’ equivalent, Champ, of Lake Champlain; and Canada’s long-necked denizen of the deep known as Ogopogo. These, and many more, famous monsters of the world below us also include giant squid, massive octopi, and even the fabled Kraken and the fabled mermaids of millennia long-gone. Possibly, too, there survive populations of marine reptiles that were assumed to have gone extinct millions of years ago, in the Jurassic period, such as the plesiosaur.

Whether scaly or slithery, massive prehistoric dinosaurs or mutant serpents, Monsters of the Deep catalogs nearly 100 accounts of eels, alligators, reptiles, giant squids, snakes, worms, deadly fish, and cold-blooded creatures of all manner and ilk. It reveals the astonishing extent to which lake monsters and sea serpents have surfaced throughout history to terrify, perplex, and amaze those who have crossed paths with these monsters of the unknown.

Master storyteller, established author, and respected expert on the unexplained and paranormal Nick Redfern sifts through the historical record, first-person accounts, and unearthed government files on lake monsters and sea serpents to tell of encounters with a variety of beasts, including ...

Cheever Felch’s 19th-century account of the massive Gloucester, New England, Sea Serpent

The brontosaurus-like Mokele-Mbembe of the Congo

The supernatural Bunyip, a monster that lurks within the creeks, lagoons, and swamps of Australia that has been known to the Aboriginal people for centuries

The disputed claims of Teddy May, former Commissioner of Sewers in New York, of alligators roaming the sewers of the city

The monster-sized fish in the River Nene, in the Fens, Cambridgeshire, England

Modern mutants genetically altered by pollution

And many more!

This richly researched reference overflows with fascinating information to make you think about—and reconsider—dipping your toes into water. With more than 120 photos and graphics, this tome is nicely illustrated. Monsters of the Deep also includes a helpful bibliography and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Visible Ink Press
• Release date: Aug 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781578597246

Nick Redfern

Nick Redfern began his writing career in the 1980s on Zero—a British-based magazine devoted to music, fashion, and the world of entertainment. He has written numerous books, including Body Snatchers in the Desert: The Horrible Truth at the Heart of the Roswell Story, and has contributed articles to numerous publications, including the London Daily Express, Eye Spy magazine, and Military Illustrated. He lives in Dallas, Texas.

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INTRODUCTION

The word Zoology is defined by the Environmental Science website as the study of animals and their behavior. Zoologists may study a particular species or group of species, either in the wild or in captivity. Zoologists study animals and their interactions with ecosystems. They study their physical characteristics, diets, behaviors, and the impacts humans have on them. They study all kinds of animals, both in their natural habitats and in captivity in zoos and aquariums. They may specialize in studying a particular animal or animal group.

Just about all zoologists would fully agree with that statement. The book that you are about to read, however, is focused upon animals that the world of mainstream zoology has very little time for and which are very far removed from the domain of zoology. Indeed, they fall into a totally different category: it goes by the title of cryptozoology. Within its many and varied numbers are the chupacabra, the abominable snowman, and mothman. This book, however, focuses on strange and bizarre creatures that may be significantly different to each other and that science decries, but they all have one important thing in common: they all live in the water at least part of the time.

We are talking about lake monsters (such as the famous Loch Ness monster of Scotland, Ogopogo, and Champ), sea serpents, massive eels, the origins and myths surrounding mermaids, the mighty kraken, giant octopi, and oversized and deadly squids. Real-life equivalents of H. P. Lovecraft’s near-legendary creation, Cthulhu; snakes in excess of forty-feet in length; and even man-beasts not at all unlike the deadly monster in the 1954 movie Creature from the Black Lagoon are part and parcel of the creepy, eerie equation.

In addition, you will learn that some so-called monsters of the deep may not be modern creatures at all. Rather, they might be surviving relics of animals that were presumed to have gone belly-up millions of years ago—even tens of millions of years ago. In other words, some of them might be survivors from millions of years ago when mosasaurs and plesiosaurs swam Earth’s waters. A scenario akin to a real-life Jurassic Park? Incredibly, that just might be the case. In our arrogance, we believe that we know just about all there is to know about our world. Wrong. The fact is that we don’t know much at all. The beasts that I’m talking about may be swimming through the deeper parts of our seas and oceans right now. Or they just might be in your local lake, watching you through a pair of beady, penetrating eyes.

And on the matter of Jurassic Park, let us end this introduction with a story that well and truly sets the scene for what is to come ahead: the discovery of an ancient fish that was assumed to be extinct. Those assumptions were incredibly wrong. Against all of the odds, it survived for millions of years after it was presumed long dead. It’s a story that prompts an important question: if one such creature can survive across a periods of tens of millions of years, then how many others could do likewise? The answer could be surprising. Now, let us get to the heart of the story.

The keepers of the Smithsonian’s website states: Coelacanths (seel-acanths) were once known only from fossils and were thought to have gone extinct approximately 65 million years ago (mya), during the great extinction in which the dinosaurs disappeared. The most recent fossil record dates from about 80 mya but the earliest records date back as far as approximately 360 mya. At one time coelacanths were a large group comprising about 90 valid species that were distributed worldwide in both marine and freshwaters. Today, there are two known living species.

It is very important to note that the coelacanth is not a tiny, blink-andyou’ll-miss-it type of fish. Rather, it grows to lengths of six-and-a-half-feet in length. An adult coelacanth can weigh up to 175 pounds. And, yet, for so long they remained completely and utterly undetected. The Sea and Sky website provide us this information on this legendary and amazing fish: Fossils of the coelacanth have been found that date back over 350 million years. But, against all odds, in 1938, a fisherman actually caught a live coelacanth off the coast of South Africa. A second specimen was captured in 1952 off the coast of the Comoros Islands off the eastern coast of Africa near Madagascar. Needless to say, this caused a sensation throughout the scientific community. Since then, live coelacanths have been sighted and photographed many times in the wild.

The U.S. government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a deep interest in the coelacanth, stating and stressing these words: The coelacanth has several unique physical features. Most notably are its paired lobe fins that extend away from the body and move in an alternating pattern. The body of the fish appears iridescent dark blue in film or video footage but under natural light the color is light brown with white blotches throughout that have been used for individual identification. They also have thick, armor-like scales and a unique joint at the back of the skull that allows them to open their upper and lower jaws at the same time. The coelacanth is a slow drift-hunter and eats a variety of benthic and epi-benthic prey, such as cephalopods, eels, cuttlefish, and deep-water fishes.

NOAA continues with its background on the coelacanth: The Tanzanian distinct population segment of African coelacanth lives among deep, rocky terraces comprised of sedimentary limestone. In this habitat, coelacanths are thought to use submarine cavities and shelves that have eroded out of the limestone composite for shelter between 230 to 460 feet in depth and in temperatures around 68°F. The average lifespan of coelacanths is estimated to be 48 years of age. Female coelacanths reach maturity between 16 and 19 years and give birth to live young after a very lengthy gestation period of 3 years, which is the longest gestation period of any vertebrate species.

NOAA concludes: Historically, fisheries bycatch has been the most significant threat to the coelacanth. The Tanzanian distinct population segment in particular is subject to bycatch in the Tanzanian shark gillnet fishery, which has been expanding over the last decade. The Tanzanian distinct population segment may experience direct habitat loss due to deep-water port construction, including submarine blasting and channel dredging known to occur in coelacanth habitat.

You may wonder why I focus so much in this introduction on the coelacanth. The answer is important: apart from finding fossilized remains of this still somewhat mysterious fish, no one had ever seen a coelacanth until 1938. No sightings. No photographs. No incredible tales from sailors on the high seas. And, yet, for all that time the fish were living very comfortably off the coast of South Africa. What this shows is that relatively large fish (and in large amounts, too) can exist—privately, even—in our world without being found a very long time. Perhaps the coelacanth is not a solitary case. One day, quite out of the blue, we might very well come across something else that was presumed extinct but that turns out not to be gone after all. And, maybe, it won’t be just one case.

The waters of our world are both expansive and deep; they can easily hold amazing secrets. As you will now see.…

OCEAN CREATURES

Any mention of monsters of the oceans instills in the mind imagery of giant, long-necked monsters. They are famously known as sea serpents. The nineteenth century was the period when fascination for sea serpents was at its peak—and when sightings were at their peak, too. We should be aware, though, that there were far more than just endless sightings, and it wasn’t all about sea serpents. Sailors told of giant octopi—and huge squids—rearing out of the waters and plucking their terrified comrades from the decks of ships and dragging them into the ocean depths. Real-life rivals to H. P. Lovecraft’s almost legendary creation Cthulhu are said to swim the lower levels of our oceans. The huge, octopus-like kraken of Scandinavian lore terrified seafarers for centuries. I share the above with you to demonstrate the amazing variety of monsters that will soon be coming your way.

TALES OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY SEA SERPENTS

Sea serpents have been seen in numerous and varied areas of our world. It’s rare that they are seen more than once in the same locale, but it’s not unheard of. For example, the port of Gloucester, Massachusetts, was the site of repeated encounters with massive, dangerous leviathans in the early seventeenth century. From a man named John Josselyn, recounted in the 1638 work From an Account of Two Voyages to New England , we have these words to muse upon: They told me of a sea serpent, or snake, that lay quoiled [sic] up like a cable upon the rock at Cape Ann; a boat passing by with English on board, and two Indians, they would have shot the serpent, but the Indians dissuaded them, saying that if he were not killed outright, they would all be in danger of their lives.

Obadiah Turner, in the same time frame, stated of the creature in old English style:

Some being on ye great beache gathering of calms and seaweed wch had been cast thereon by ye mightie storm did spy a most wonderful serpent a shorte way off from ye shore. He was big round in ye thickest part as a wine pipe; and they do affirm that he was fifteen fathoms more in length. A most wonderful tale. But ye witnesses be credible, and it would be of no account to them to tell an untrue tale. Wee have likewise heard yt Cape Ann ye people have seene a monster like unto this, whch did there come out of ye land mch to ye terror of them yt did see him.

It should be stressed that the nineteenth century was a period in which sea serpents were really in their element, we might say. From August 10, 1817, we have the following notable report from Amos Story:

It was between the hours of twelve and one o’clock when I first saw him, and he continued in sight for an hour and a half. I was setting on the shore, and was about twenty rods from him when he was the nearest to me. His head appeared shaped much like that of the sea turtle, and he carried his head from ten to twelve inches above the surface of the water. His head at that distance appeared larger than the head of any dog I ever saw. From the back of his head to the next part of him that was visible, I should judge to be three or four feet. He moved very rapidly through the water, I should say a mile or two, or at most, in three minutes. I saw no bunches on his back. On this day, I did not see more than ten or twelve feet of his body.

Story’s account was followed within the week by that of Solomon Allen III, a shipmaster. He said of the incredible beast he spied: His head formed something like the head of a rattlesnake, but nearly as large as the head of horse. When he moved on the surface of the water his motion was slow, at times playing in circles, and sometimes moving straight forward.

A particularly detailed account came days later from one Cheever Felch, whose sighting of the Gloucester sea serpent was made when Felch was aboard a U.S. schooner, the Science. He said of the monstrous thing:

His color is dark brown with white under his throat. His size we could not accurately ascertain, but his head is about three feet in circumference, flat and much smaller than his body. We did not see his tail; but from the end of the head to the farthest protuberance was not far from one hundred feet. I speak with a degree of certainty, behind much accustomed to measure and estimate distances and length. I counted fourteen bunches on his back, the first one, say, ten or twelve feet from this head, and the others about seven feet apart. They decreased in size towards the tail. These bunches were sometimes counted with and sometimes without a glass. Mr. Malborne counted thirteen, Mr. Blake thirteen and fourteen, and the boatman the same number.… His motion was partly vertical and partly horizontal, like that of freshwater snakes. I have been much acquainted with snakes in our interior waters. His motion was the same.

Descriptions of sea monsters from centuries past showed them in all shapes and sizes, all of them terrifying.

And still, the reports kept on coming, as seafarer John Brown noted:

I discovered something about three or four miles distant, about two points on the weather bow, which appeared as a mast, as it rose and sunk in a perpendicular manner, once in about eight or ten minutes. I kept the vessel directly for it, and after look at it with my glass, I observed to my mate that it was a wreck, as I could see timbers sticking up, but as we approached nearer, I found what appeared like timbers to be a number of porpoises and black fish playing and jumping around a large Sea-Serpent, which we had supposed to be the mast.

While there certainly have been sightings of sea serpents in the waters of Gloucester since 1817, none of them—in terms of their frequency, number of witnesses, and credibility—has ever come close to matching those tumultuous, early nineteenth-century days when the people of Gloucester were plagued by a monster.

Then, there is an account that appeared in the British Literary Gazette on August 1, 1818. In an article called The Great American Sea Serpent from August 8, 2016, at the Library of Congress website, Stephanie Hall recounted that "Captain Joseph Woodward of the schooner Adamant reported an encounter off the coast of Cape Ann in May, 1818. He said he shot a cannon at the monster." In response to the shot, he said:

The serpent shook its head and its tail in an extraordinary manner and advanced toward the ship with open jaws; I had caused the cannon to be reloaded, but he had come so near that all the crew were seized with terror, and we thought only of getting out of his way. He almost touched the vessel and, had I not tacked as I did, he would certainly have come on board. He dived, but in a moment we saw him come up again with his head on one side of the vessel and his tail on the other as if he was going to lift up and upset us. However we did not feel any shock. He remained five hours near us, only going backward and forward.

We’ll now take a look at some particularly credible claims of encounters with monsters—cases that amazed and terrified the crews and passengers of ships and boats on the high seas. Notably, a number of such reports have been declassified under the terms of the United Kingdom’s Freedom of Information Act of 2000. They demonstrate something remarkable and illuminating: namely, that highly credible sources had seen huge monsters of the oceans and were willing to attest to the truth of the amazing incidents. One such case can be found in the nineteenth-century-era archives of the Admiralty, or British Navy.

The first report that was declassified by government personnel dates back to May 9, 1830. The crew that had the amazing encounter were aboard the Rob Roy, a military craft navigating the Atlantic Ocean. Little did the crew know when the day began that they would soon come face-to-face with a terrifying monster of the mysterious depths. We have the captain of the ship, one James Stockdale, to thank for having the guts to inform senior naval personnel of the incredible creature that had been seen.

The sea monster spotted at Cape Ann was originally reported in 1639 (as per this illustration of the sighting). It was also seen in 1818, according to Captain Joseph Woodward.

I will now share with you the unedited words of Captain Stockdale:

About five P.M. all at once while I was walking on the poop my attention was drawn to the water on the port bow by a scuffling noise. Likewise, all the watch on deck were drawn to it. Judge my amazement when what should stare us all in the face as if not knowing whether to come over the deck or to go around the stern—but the great big sea snake! Now I have heard of the fellow before—and I have killed snakes twenty-four feet long in the straits of Malacca, but they would go in his mouth.

I think he must have been asleep for we were going along very softly two knots an hour, and he seemed as much alarmed as we were—and all taken aback for about fifteen seconds. But he soon was underway and, when fairly off, his head was square with our topsail and his tail was square with the foremast.

My ship is 171 feet long overall—and the foremast is 42 feet from the stern which would make the monster about 129 feet long. If I had not seen it I could not have believed it but there was no mistake or doubt of its length—for the brute was so close I could even smell his nasty fishy smell.

When underway he carried his head about six feet out of water—with a fin between the shoulders about two feet long. I think he was swimming about five miles an hour—for I watched him from the topsail yard till I lost sight of him in about fifty minutes. I hope never to see him more. It is enough to frighten the strong at heart.

Documents from the Rob Roy incident contained testimony from witnesses of an enormous, serpentlike creature with a large head and a kind of ruff or fringe around its neck.

The report of Captain Stockdale and his crew was not the only one that ended up in U.K. military files. Another was dated December 13, 1857. Commander George Henry Harrington was so impressed—and worried—by an extraordinary sighting that he quickly put together a full report on the encounter with the giant beast. It reads like this:

While myself and officers were standing on the lee side of the poop—looking toward the island—we were startled by the sight of a huge marine animal which reared its head out of the water within twenty yards of the ship—when it suddenly disappeared for about half a minute and then made a reappearance in the same manner again—showing us its neck and head about ten or twenty feet out of the water.

Its head was shaped like a long buoy—and I should suppose the diameter to have been seven or eight feet in the largest part with a kind of scroll or ruff encircling it about two feet from the top. The water was discolored for several hundred feet from the head, so much so that on its first appearance my impression was that the ship was in broken waters, produced, as I supposed, by some volcanic agency, since I passed the island before.

But the second appearance completely dispelled those fears and assured us that it was a monster of extraordinary length and appeared to be moving slowly towards the land. The ship was going too fast to enable us to reach the masthead in time to form a correct estimate of this extreme length—but from what we saw from the deck we conclude that he must have been over two hundred feet long. The Boatswain and several of the crew, who observed it from the forecastle, state that it was more than double the length of the ship, in which case it must have been five hundred feet.

Captain Harrington signed off: I am convinced that it belonged to the serpent tribe.

January 18, 1875, was the date on which yet another encounter with a massive monster occurred. The Pauline was a ship sailing about twenty miles from Cape São Roque, situated on the northeast side of Brazil. All was well until roughly eleven o’clock A.M. That’s when the crew’s world was turned upside down—not literally, thankfully! But it could have been exactly that, given the size of the monster. The master of the Pauline was George Drevar, someone who knew a monster when he saw it. He quickly wrote down the salient facts concerning what happened on that memorable day when a monster surfaced from the mysterious depths of the wild waters:

All was well until roughly eleven o’clock A . M . That’s when the crew’s world was turned upside down.…

The weather fine and clear, the wind and sea moderate. Observed some black spots on the water, and a whitish pillar, about thirtyfive feet high, above them. At the first glance I took all to be breakers, as the sea was splashing up fountain-like about them, and the pillar, a pinnacle rock bleached with the sun; but the pillar fell with a splash, and a similar one rose. They rose and fell alternately in quick succession, and good glasses showed me it was a monster sea-serpent coiled twice round a large sperm whale.

The head and tail parts, each about thirty feet long, were acting as levers, twisting itself and victim around with great velocity. They sank out of sight about every two minutes, coming to the surface still revolving, and the struggles of the whale and two other whales that were near, frantic with excitement, made the sea in this vicinity like a boiling cauldron; and a loud and confused noise was distinctly heard.

This strange occurrence lasted some fifteen minutes, and finished with the tail portion of the whale being elevated straight in the air, then waving backwards and forwards, and lashing the water furiously in the last death-struggle, when the whole body disappeared from our view, going down head-foremost towards the bottom, where, no doubt, it was gorged at the serpent’s leisure; and that monster of monsters may have been many months in a state of coma, digesting the huge mouthful.

Then two of the largest sperm whales that I have ever seen moved slowly thence towards the vessel, their bodies more than usually elevated out of the water, and not spouting or making the least noise, but seeming quite paralyzed with fear; indeed, a cold shiver went through my own frame on beholding the last agonizing struggle of the poor whale that had seemed as helpless in the coils of the vicious monster as a small bird in the talons of a hawk. Allowing for two coils round the whale, I think the serpent was about one hundred and sixty or one hundred and seventy feet long, and seven or eight in girth. It was in color much like a conger eel, and the head, from the mouth being always open, appeared the largest part of the body. I think Cape San Roque is a landmark for whales leaving the south for the North Atlantic.

It scarcely needs saying … that any kind of creature that had the ability and muscle power to coil itself around a sperm whale must have been a formidable and dangerous one.

I wrote thus far, little thinking I would ever see the serpent again; but at 7 A.M., July 13th, in the same latitude, and some eighty miles east of San Roque, I was astonished to see the same or a similar monster. It was throwing its head and about forty feet of its body in a horizontal position out of the water as it passed onwards by the stern of our vessel. I began musing why we were so much favored with such a strange visitor, and concluded that the band of white paint, two feet wide above the copper, might have looked like a fellow-serpent to it, and, no doubt, attracted its attention.

While thus thinking, I was startled by the cry of There it is again, and a short distance to leeward, elevated some sixty feet in the air, was the great leviathan, grimly looking towards the vessel. As I was not sure it was only our free board it was viewing, we had all our axes ready, and were fully determined, should the brute embrace the Pauline, to chop away for its backbone with all our might, and the wretch might have found for once in its life that it had caught a Tartar. This statement is strictly true, and the occurrence was witnessed by my officers, half the crew, and myself; and we are ready, at any time, to testify on oath that it is so, and that we are not in the least mistaken. A vessel, about three years ago, was dragged over by some sea-monster in the Indian Ocean.

It scarcely needs saying (but I will do so anyway) that any kind of creature that had the ability and muscle power to coil itself around a sperm whale must have been a formidable and dangerous one. What, precisely, it was remains unknown. The oceans guard their secrets well.

The nineteenth century thus revealed numerous bizarre tales of the serpent kind. Significantly, a great many cases involved sources and witnesses who were willing to have their testimony revealed publicly. In other words, we are not talking about friend-of-a-friend, campfire types of stories. Rather, we are dealing with credible individuals who were more than happy to share their life-changing encounters. One such source was a Victorian-era naturalist named Philip Henry Gosse (1810–1888). From 1845 to 1846, Gosse, always one for wild adventures in exotic lands, explored much of the Caribbean. In doing so, he uncovered a story of a very strange animal that could maneuver on land as easily as it could in the water surrounding the Caribbean islands. Of the eye-opening story, which Gosse heard from a respected medical man, Gosse said: He had seen, in 1829, a serpent about four feet in length, but of unwonted thickness, dull ochre in color with well-defined dark spots, having on its head a sort of pyramidal helmet, somewhat lobed at the summit, of a pale red hue. The animal, however, was dead, and decomposition was already setting in. He informed me that the Negroes of the district were well acquainted with it; and that they represented it as making a noise, not unlike the crowing of a cock, and being addicted to preying on poultry.

Gosse had a friend named Richard Hill who had also heard of this very odd beast from a Spanish acquaintance on Hispaniola. Those in the know said that it dwelled in the eastern regions of the island in what is now the Dominican Republic. Gosse said of Hill: My friend’s Spanish informant had seen the serpent with mandibles like a bird, with a cock’s nest, with scarlet lobes or wattles; and he described its habits—perhaps from common fame rather than personal observation—as a frequenter of hen-roosts, into which it would thrust its head, and deceive the young chickens by its imitative physiognomy, and its attempts to crow.

British naturalist Phillip Henry Gosse was a noted marine biologist, author of popular books on natural science, and inventor of the saltwater aquarium.

He recorded the stories of a number of sea monster witnesses.

Jasper Cargill was another of Gosse’s sources. Of his in-person discussion with Cargill, Gosse reported: When visiting Skibo, in St. George, an estate of [Cargill’s] father’s, in descending the mountain-road, his attention was drawn to a snake of dark hue that erected itself from some fragments of limestone rock that lay about. It was about four feet long and unusually thick bodied. His surprise was greatly increased on perceiving that it was crested, and that from the far side of its cheeks depended some red colored flaps, like gills or wattles. After gazing at him intently for some time, with its head well erect, it drew itself in, and disappeared among the fragmentary rocks.

Cargill’s son succeeded in killing one of the strange animals just a few years later, as Gosse also reported:

Some youngsters of the town came running to tell me of a curious snake, unlike any snake they had ever seen before, which young Cargill had shot, when out for a day’s sport in the woodlands of a neighbor. They described it as a serpent in all respects, but with a very curious shaped head, with wattles on each side of its jaws. After taking it in hand and looking at it, they placed it in a hollow tree, intending to return for it when they should be coming home, but they had strolled from the place so far that it was inconvenient to retrace their steps when wearied with rambling.

When the boys came back roughly twenty-four hours later, the weird creature was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, however, that was not the end of the matter. Gosse came across the testimony of a man named Ulick Ramsay. Of Ramsay’s story, Gosse put pen to paper and recorded that Ramsay had seen in the hand of the barrack-master at the barracks of a Spanish town, a curious snake, which he, too, had shot among the rocks of a little line of eminences near the railway, about two miles out, called Craigallechie. It was a serpent with a curious shaped head, and projections on each side, which he likened to the fins of an eel, but said were close up to the jaws.

Truly, this was one of the strangest of all tales of animals that have a connection to both the oceans and the land. And let us not forget the eerie ability of the creature to mimic chickens! One has to wonder if the animals mimicked the cries of a chicken as a means to lure an unwary person—on the lookout for a tasty chicken dinner—into its domain and then slaughter the poor soul and dine upon him or her. A disturbing scenario, for sure.

We would not have all the data we have on sea serpents in the nineteenth century if it were not for the sterling work of Henry Lee. In the 1800s, Lee was at the forefront of research into the domain of massive serpents. Grace Constantino of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, writing for Smithsonian magazine on October 27, 2014, states of the sea creature legends: "Where did the accounts of monsters come from in the first place? Were they simply fairy tales invented to scare curious minds and small children? Henry Lee, who wrote extensively on sea creatures and monsters, emphasized that many classical monsters are not simply pure myth. In his publication Sea Fables Explained (1883), he wrote, ‘… the descriptions by ancient writers of so-called fabulous creatures are rather distorted portraits than invented falsehoods, and there is hardly any of the monsters of old which has not its prototype in Nature at the present day.’"

I’ll share with you a number of incredible examples that came to Lee’s attention and that he then brought to the attention of the media and the public, both eager for sensational tales of fabulous beasts. The first, from his book Sea Monsters Unmasked, begins as follows:

Gloucester Harbor in Massachusetts was the setting for an 1817 sighting of a sea serpent, according to testimony from eleven witnesses.

In 1817 a large marine animal, supposed to be a serpent, was seen at Gloucester Harbor, near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, about thirty miles from Boston. The Linnaean Society of New England investigated the matter, and took much trouble to obtain evidence thereon. The depositions of eleven credible witnesses were certified on oath before magistrates, one of whom had himself seen the creature, and who confirmed the statements. All agreed that the animal had the appearance of a serpent, but estimated its length, variously, at from fifty to a hundred feet. Its head was in shape like that of a turtle, or snake, but as large as the head of a horse. There was no appearance of a mane. Its mode of progressing was by vertical undulations; and five of the witnesses described it as having the hunched protuberances mentioned by Captain de Ferry and others. Of this, I can offer no zoological explanation. The testimony given was apparently sincere, but it was received with mistrust; for, as Mr. Gosse says, owing to a habit prevalent in the United States of supposing that there is somewhat of wit in gross exaggeration or hoaxing invention, we do naturally look with a lurking suspicion on American statements when they describe unusual or disputed phenomena.

There was this account from Lee, too:

On the 15th of May, 1833, a party of British officers, consisting of Captain Sullivan, Lieutenants Maclachlan and Malcolm of the Rifle Brigade, Lieutenant Lister of the Artillery, and Mr. Ince of the Ordnance, whilst crossing [St.] Margaret’s Bay in a small yacht, on their way from Halifax to Mahone Bay, saw, at a distance of a hundred and fifty to two hundred yards, the head and neck of some denizen of the deep, precisely like those of a common snake in the act of swimming, the head so far elevated and thrown forward by the curve of the neck, as to enable them to see the water under and beyond it. The creature rapidly passed, leaving a regular wake, from the commencement of which to the fore part, which was out of water, they judged its length to be about eighty feet. They set down the head at about six feet in length (considerably larger than that of a horse), and that portion of the neck which they saw at the same. There could be no mistake—no delusion, they say; and we were all perfectly satisfied that we had been favored with a view of the true and veritable sea-serpent. This account was published in the Zoologist, in 1847, and at that date all the officers above named were still living.

Of a Norwegian tale, Lee wrote: The venerable P. W. Deinbolt, Arch deacon of Molde, gives the following account of an incident that occurred there on the 28th of July, 1845. In Deinbolt’s own words:

J. C. Lund, bookseller and printer; G. S. Krogh, merchant; Christian Flang, Lund’s apprentice, and John Elgenses, labourer, were out on Romsdal-fjord, fishing. The sea was, after a warm, sunshiny day, quite calm. About seven o’clock in the afternoon, at a little distance from the shore, near the ballast place and Molde Hooe, they saw a long marine animal, which slowly moved itself forward, as it appeared to them, with the help of two fins, on the fore-part of the body nearest the head, which they judged by the boiling of the water on both sides of it.

The visible part of the body appeared to be between forty and fifty feet in length, and moved in undulations, like a snake. The body was round and of a dark color. As they discerned a waving motion in the water behind the animal, they concluded that part of the body was concealed under water. That it was one continuous animal they saw plainly from its movement.

When the animal was about one hundred yards from the boat, they noticed tolerably correctly its fore parts, which ended in a sharp snout; its colossal head raised itself above the water in the form of a semi-circle; the lower part was not visible. The color of the head was dark-brown and the skin smooth; they did not notice the eyes, or any mane or bristles on the throat.

When the serpent came about a musket-shot near, Lund fired at it, and was certain the shots hit it in the head. After the shot it dived but came up immediately. It raised its neck in the air, like a snake preparing to dart on his prey. After he had turned and got his body in a straight line, which he appeared to do with great difficulty, he darted like an arrow against the boat. They reached the shore, and the animal, perceiving it had come into shallow water, dived immediately and disappeared in the deep.

Such is the declaration of these four men, and no one has cause to question their veracity, or imagine that they were so seized with fear that they could not observe what took place so near them. There are not many here, or on other parts of the Norwegian coast, who longer doubt the existence of the sea serpent. The writer of this narrative was a long time skeptical, as he had not been so fortunate as to see this monster of the deep; but after the many accounts he has read, and the relations he has received from credible witnesses, he does not dare longer to doubt the existence of the sea-serpent.

There are also these amazing words from Lee, again from Sea Monsters Unmasked:

The next incident of the kind in point of date that we find recorded carries us back to the locality of which Pontoppidan wrote, and in which was seen the animal vouched for by Captain de Ferry. In 1847 there appeared in a London daily paper a long account translated from the Norse journals of fresh appearances of the sea-serpent. The statement made was, that it had recently been frequently seen in the neighborhood of Christiansand and Molde. In the large bight of the sea at Christiansand it had been seen every year, only in the warmest weather, and when the sea was perfectly calm, and the surface of the water unruffled.

Nineteenth-century mariners’ accounts of sea monsters vary somewhat in their descriptions, but the creatures typically have long bodies and large heads. Other features, such as color, scales, fringes, limbs, and so on, have varied.

The evidence of three respectable persons was taken, namely, Nils Roe, a workman at Mr. William Knudtzon’s, who saw it twice there, John Johnson, merchant, and Lars Johnoen, fisherman at Smolen. The latter said he had frequently seen it, and that one afternoon in the dog-days, as he was sitting in his boat, he saw it twice in the course of two hours, and quite close to him.

Lee had far more to say:

It came, indeed, to within six feet of him [Johnoen], and, becoming alarmed, he commended his soul to God, and lay down in the boat, only holding his head high enough to enable him to observe the monster. It passed him, disappeared, and returned; but, a breeze springing up, it sank, and he saw it no more. He described it as being about six fathoms long, the body (which was as round as a serpent’s) two feet across, the head as long as a ten-gallon cask, the eyes large, round, red, sparkling, and about five inches in diameter: close behind the head a mane like a fin commenced along the neck, and spread itself out on both sides, right and left, when swimming.

The mane, as well as the head, was of the color of mahogany. The body was quite smooth, its movements occasionally fast and slow. It was serpent-like, and moved up and down. The few undulations which those parts of the body and tail that were out of water made, were scarcely a fathom in length. These undulations were not so high that he could see between them and the water. In confirmation of this account Mr. Soren Knudtzon, Dr. Hoffmann, surgeon in Molde, Rector Hammer, Mr. Kraft, curate, and several other persons, testified that they had seen in the neighborhood of Christiansand a sea serpent of considerable size.

Henry Lee went on: "In the Times of the 9th of October, 1848, appeared a paragraph stating that a sea-serpent had been met with by the Daedalus frigate, on her homeward voyage from the East Indies. The Admiralty immediately inquired of her commander, Captain M’Quhae, as to the truth of the report; and his official reply, addressed to Admiral Sir W. H. Gage, G.C.H., Devonport, was printed in the Times of the 13th of October, 1848."

Captain M’Quhae’s account makes for amazing and jaw-dropping reading.

H.M.S. Daedalus, Hamoaze, October 11th, 1848.

Sir,

In reply to your letter of this date, requiring information as to the truth of the statement published in the Times newspaper, of a seaserpent of extraordinary dimensions having been seen from H.M.S. Daedalus, under my command, on her passage from the East Indies, I have the honor to acquaint you, for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that at 5 o’clock P.M. on the 6th of Aug. last, in lat. 24° 44 S. and long. 9° 22 E., the weather dark and cloudy, wind fresh from the N.W. with a long ocean swell from the W., the ship on the port tack, head being N.E. by N., something very unusual was seen by Mr. Sartoris, midshipman, rapidly approaching the ship from before the beam.

An engraving of the monster reported by crew of the HMS Daedalus. If one disregards the long body, the head appears rather whale- or orca-like.

The circumstance was immediately reported by him to the officer of the watch, Lieut. Edgar Drummond, with whom and Mr. Wm. Barrett, the Master, I was at the time walking the quarterdeck. The ship’s company were at supper. On our attention being called to the object it was discovered to be an enormous serpent, with head and shoulders kept about four feet constantly above the surface of the sea, and, as nearly as we could approximate by comparing it with the length of what our main topsail yard would show in the water, there was at the very least sixty feet of the animal à fleur d’eau, no portion of which was, to our perception, used in propelling it through the water, either by vertical or horizontal undulation.

It passed rapidly, but so close under our lee quarter that had it been a man of my acquaintance I should easily have recognized his features with the naked eye; and it did not, either in approaching the ship or after it had passed our wake, deviate in the slightest degree from its course to the S.W., which it held on at the pace of from twelve to fifteen miles per hour, apparently on some determined purpose.

The diameter of the serpent was about fifteen or sixteen inches behind the head, which was without any doubt that of a snake; and it was never, during the twenty minutes it continued in sight of our glasses, once below the surface of the water; its color dark brown, and yellowish white about the throat. It had no fins, but something like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of seaweed, washed about its back. It was seen by the quartermaster, the boatswain’s mate, and the man at the wheel, in addition to myself and the officers above mentioned.

I am having a drawing of the serpent made from a sketch taken immediately after it was seen, which I hope to have ready for transmission to my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty by tomorrow’s Post.

—PETER M’QUHAE, Captain.

The story is not over. Our captain had more to say. This report from Captain M’Quhae appeared in the pages of the Times newspaper the following month on November 21, 1848, in response to a query about his experience:

Professor Owen correctly states that I evidently saw a large creature moving rapidly through the water very different from anything I had before witnessed, neither a whale, a grampus, a great shark, an alligator, nor any of the larger surface-swimming creatures